Mr. Vampire (1985) is the essential “hopping vampire” movie. This Golden Harvest production directed by Ricky Lau pulls out all of the stops combining motifs of the horror film with kung-fu and classic ghost stories. The special effects in Mr. Vampire, though dated, match the tone and aesthetic of the film perfectly.Generally speaking Mr. Vampire is one of the greatest of all horror-comedies.
Lam Ching-Ying plays a Taoist monk who must battle a vampire and a succubus to save his bumbling assistants (Ricky Hui and Chin Siu-Ho) and Ting-Ting (Moon Lee Choi-Fung) from a fate worse than death. Lam Ching-Ying is the straight man; ever stoic and never ruffled. Ricky Hui and Chin Siu-Ho are the equivalent of the Ritz Brothers; they walk blindly into peril and the result is always pure slapstick.
Chin Siu-Ho’s encounter with the succubus Jade (Pauline Wong Siu-Fung) is the highlight of the film. Lau retains the comedic aspects of the vampire centric sections of the film while fully embracing the ghost story milieu. Even as Chin Siu-Ho goofs around the lighting becomes more stylized, the shadows more pronounced as a wind machine stays fixed on Jade’s face. Essentially these portions of the film are a segue into another facet of the horror genre. It works both as an excellent parody and as an affective mini-narrative in which both Jade and the Chin Siu-Ho character Chou find redemption.
But what really sticks in the mind’s eye are the images of the vampire (Yuen Wah) hopping after his intended victims and the bizarre dance stylings of Ricky Hui. Mr. Vampire is unpretentious goofy fun. Ricky Lau has made more than a handful of horror spoofs like Mr. Vampire, including a sequel, that seem well worth checking out. This, however, is the place to start.
